


Piece of Me

by Purple_fools_gold



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Bucky doesn't like competition, Bucky is a workoutaholic, Eventual Smut, F/M, Genderbending, I don't even know who will be in this yet, I hope you all realize this is just my fantasy mixed with my otp, I'm not naming every character, Lets just say EVERYONE - Freeform, Slow Burn, Tags to be added as I go, fem!Bucky, genderbent, honestly what am I doing, sort of, workouts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2018-10-30 05:13:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10869828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_fools_gold/pseuds/Purple_fools_gold
Summary: When Bucky Barnes signed up for the gym, she most certainly did not expect Captain America to show up one day.She would've been fine if the 100% solid muscle beefcake had left her alone to ogle from a distance, but nooooo.He seems to have a personal agenda that consists of nothing but beating Bucky at every workout she does.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So here's... this? I don't know man this is what I think about every day at the gym so I keep myself going.
> 
> Workout like Cap is right beside you!
> 
> Anyways I wrote this at midnight and I don't know if it makes sense or not so please let me know if it does. Or doesn't.

_I honest to God hope I die on this treadmill._

_Maybe then my legs will stop fucking burning._

Bucky huffed out a breath and pushed a button on the treadmill repeatedly to lower the speed.

She looked around her, trying to see if anyone noticed her reduced speed.

Not that anyone had any reason to be watching her.

She slowed herself to a jog for the remaining ten minutes, content with her decision to not break her legs today.

She cranked the music on her phone anyways, blaring Britney Spears through her headphones loud enough to hurt her ears.

She nearly fell off the treadmill when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye right next to her.

Bucky ripped her headphones out of her ears and regained her balance as she turned to see _what the fuck was that?_

That just so happened to be the most ripped looking man she’d ever seen getting on the treadmill next to her.

He either didn’t notice her stumbling over her own two feet or didn’t care that she’d nearly gotten tread marks on her face, because he started his workout without so much as a glance to her.

Fine by her, she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the 200+ lbs of rippling muscles and sweat to her left.

The man started running, staring straight ahead, blue baseball hat covering his face from Bucky.

Bucky put her headphones back in and tried to focus on her legs and how much they definitely didn’t hurt, but she was distracted by the very loud sound of this guy fucking sprinting right beside her.

Bucky pursed her lips and turned the speed up just a little on her treadmill. She glanced over to her left and saw the speed at which the hulk-like man was running, and nearly fell off her treadmill again.

How in the everloving FUCK does someone run that fast?

Bucky turned her music up even louder, Britney’s music encouraging her to run even faster.

With only a few minutes left until her timer ran out, Bucky decided _fuck it, I said I hope I die on this thing anyways,_ and pushed down on the button next to 'speed' until it was matching mystery man’s.

Bucky felt like she was fucking flying.

Were her feet even touching the treadmill? Probably not.

She immediately regretted her decision when her legs started screaming at her to just chop them off instead of this torture, but she couldn’t just stop while this Adonis was right next to her.

Sweat dripped in her eyes and she didn’t think she was breathing at all, and those last few seconds she watched tick away on the timer felt like hours, but as soon as it got to zero and the treadmill slowed, she felt very good about herself.

That is, until she looked over to her left again and saw that Greek god was running at a 50% incline.

____________________________________________________________________________

 

The next day, Bucky was back at the gym, as per usual, though she spent nearly forty-five minutes stretching out her gumby-feeling legs, and avoiding even looking in the direction of the treadmills.

She decided to stay away from anything involving her legs altogether.

Bucky sat down on one of the many workout benches with two twenty-pound weights, and started with overhead raises.

She, along with every other girl she knew, tended to workout her legs and ass more than her arms, so she was very quickly shaking with the effort of lifting the weights over her head.

She set them down after fifteen reps and laid back on the bench to start bench pressing the free weights instead of the bar.

When she sat back up, she tried to stretch her ever-sore back by twisting around, and nearly dropped her weights.

_He’s here again._

Apparently he had the same idea as she did, because he was working on his arms too.

Except…

Bucky blinked and shook her head quickly. There’s no way she was seeing that.

The Guy (as she had decided to refer to him) was bench pressing the most amount of weight Bucky had ever seen in her life.

There was so much weight on the bar she was afraid it was going to snap in half.

And he was lifting it up and down like it was nothing!

Bucky looked down at her puny little weights and was suddenly tempted to throw them at The Guy, even though they’d probably bounce of his pecs like they were rubber balls.

_His pecs…_

_No. Stop it. Stop it._

Bucky tore her gaze away from The Guy and flipped through her music library until she found something loud and angry and _yes good imagine hitting him in his stupid face every time you lift the weights up._

____________________________________________________________________________

 

Two weeks after what Bucky was calling The Treadmill Incident, The Guy had proved himself better than her at absolutely everything in the gym.

Every machine, every exercise, everything.

She flopped down on her bed after a particularly bad day of being beaten while doing core exercises.

Bucky was pretty sure she could go back to the gym in three hours and The Guy would still be holding that perfect fucking plank position.

“I wanna quit the gym.” She said into her phone, channeling her inner Chandler.

“What!?”

“I said, I want to quit the gym.”

“You’re joking.”

“No, Becca, I’m not.”

She could hear her sister huff in confusion on the other end of the phone. “And just why is it you want to quit the gym?”

“Because this guy keeps one-upping me on everything I do. Actually, he’s, like, a thousand-upping me. It’s ridiculous.”

“So… you want to quit your favourite thing ever because some frat bro on steroids is lifting more than you?”

“Becca, he’s definitely too old to be a frat bro.”

Bucky heard a sigh. “B, listen. Just cause some random guy is lifting more than you-”

“And running faster.”

“- and running faster than you, doesn’t mean you should just give up. How long have you been going to this gym now? Four years? Five?”

“Five,”

“See? Five years and you’ve been working out at that gym almost every day! And not once have you ever wanted to quit because you were intimidated by someone.”

“I’m not intimidated by him!”

“Yeah, okay. Come on, Bucky, it’s not like he’s the only person who’s ever been slightly better than you.”

“A bit more than slightly.” Bucky grumbled. “But I guess you’re right.”

“If anything, he should make you want to work out even more so you can be better than him.”

Oh.

“Buck? Still there?”

“Gotta go, Becca. I’ve gotta start eating protein. Love you.”

Her sister laughed. “Love you too, crazy.”

____________________________________________________________________________

 

Bucky had come up with The Plan (she really wasn’t sure why all this capitalization was important in her head, but oh well) which consisted mostly of her eating a lot of chicken, protein shakes, and trying to hold onto her last shred of dignity because she realized that The Guy had yet to beat her personal (and probably gym-wide) record for squats.

If there was one thing she was exceptionally proud of, it was her ass and its ability to squat with obscene amounts of weight.

Okay, maybe it was her legs that did all the heavy lifting, but still.

She watched, definitely _not_ stalked, The Guy as he moved throughout the gym.

After a week of not stalking, she started to wonder if maybe he just didn’t ever squat.

_Yeah, his ass looks like that naturally, no squatting involved. Ha!_

_No. No, Bucky. You hate him. You definitely don’t think his ass is magical. Noooo._

Just when she’d decided that he definitely avoided the squat machine purposefully, he started moving towards it.

“Please no, I like my record.” She said to herself as she watched, NOT stalked, The Guy from her elliptical.

She watched him load on weight after weight after weight onto the bar, then stepped underneath it, and lifted the bar onto his (definitely not amazing) shoulders.

Bucky tallied up the weight he had on the bar in her head and swore under her breath.

That was fifty pounds more than she’d done on her one-rep-max day last year after she’d trained like a beast for six months.

“Fuck you.” She whispered as he bent his knees, lowered down, then pushed himself back up.

“I swear to fucking Christ-” She watched him repeat the movements again, and then another 18 times.

“No, no, no, no, no!” She was suddenly off the elliptical and moving towards him.

Bucky was still saying ‘no’ when she found herself directly in front of The Guy.

He was squatted down when she got to him, and as he straightened up she took a deep breath and then cursed herself internally for the word vomit that was about to come out of her mouth.

“You just show up here one day and start fucking sprinting on the treadmill right fucking next to me and like you’re running up Mount fucking Everest with that incline and then you go and bench press every goddamn free weight in here at the same time and hold a fucking plank for fucking hours without even a single fucking drop of sweat and THEN you go and do every goddamn workout I do but better and longer and I just wanna know if you personally have it out for me or you’re just some sort of fucking-” Bucky froze when she saw his face. “-Superhero.”

_Of course. I just mouthed off to Captain America._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet! Yay!

Bucky had feared for her life only twice in all her 25 years.

 

The first was when she was a teenager driving her parents car down a busy street when she saw a man holding what, at that moment, looked like a gun. He had held it straight up in the air, and as Bucky got closer to him he lowered it, and she briefly thought  _ I’m I’m killed by some teenage white guy with a gun I’m coming back to haunt his stupid privileged ass  _ before she realized it was just some weirdo with some old school radio antenna or something similar. 

 

The second was only a few years earlier, when she’d been walking back to her apartment from a bar she’d been at with her friends. Yes, she was tipsy and no, she wasn’t so drunk that she didn’t notice the footsteps following her. She turned a corner quickly and glanced over her shoulder to see a hulking figure hurriedly walking after her, hood up and hands in their pockets.

 

_ No fucking way, buddy,  _ she’d thought as she waited for the figure to get closer to her before whirling around with pepper spray in her outstretched hand. She’d sprayed whoever it was directly in the face, and they’d cried out and flung their hands out of their pockets and up to their face, dropping the switchblade they’d been carrying. 

 

Bucky had run the rest of the way back to her apartment, heels or no heels, and called her sister until she was sure no one was going to try and break into her apartment to get her.

 

Now, Bucky could add a third to the list.

 

Standing in front of  _ Captain freaking America  _ after having basically called him a dick in a very roundabout way, she was certain he was going to lift up the weight he had across his shoulders and drop it on her.

 

Honestly? She’d be fine with that. 

 

“Uh,” she said very intelligently as she stared up at the face of America itself.

 

He stared back down at her for a moment, blinked, then laughed.

 

“Uh?” She tried again, still unable to think of what words were.

 

“Sorry, sorry.” He said as he sat the bar down. “I don’t- I wasn’t laughing at you. I swear.”

 

“Uh-huh,” Bucky said, crossing her arms over her chest with a frown. 

She realized she was probably the least intimidating thing the Captain had ever seen and uncrossed her arms. 

 

“No, no really. I wasn’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t- I mean, I wasn’t trying to outdo you on purpose.”

 

“Oh really? You just so happen to do every single workout I do, either at the same time or immediately after?”

 

He blushed- actually blushed!?- and looked down at his feet before looking back up and saying, “Well, I mean, I was… sort of following you?”

 

Bucky’s mind went blank. She was vaguely aware of a sound coming out of her mouth that sounded like “Uhhhhhhhh?”

 

“Well, I wasn’t following you. I just- you seem to really know what you’re doing here, so I thought I should just do what you were doing.”

 

Bucky mentally slapped herself across her face to bring herself back to Earth. “You… Captain America… think that  _ I  _ know more than you do about working out?”

 

“Well, yeah.”

 

“Ha! I’m sorry, what? Have you  _ seen  _ yourself lately? You-” She gestured to all of him. “-think that  _ I _ -” she gestured to the very small amount of herself in comparison. “-know more about working out than you? You’re hilarious.”

 

“Well, I didn’t exactly get  _ this _ -” He gestured to himself how she had. “-from working out.”

 

“Oh, yeah. So, being a superhero means you get the bod without any of the work?”

 

“Pretty much.”

 

“Lucky you, then.” Bucky’s arms crossed again without her even meaning too. 

 

“It’s not like I do  _ nothing _ .” He started to explain.

 

“Right, right. You save the world. From, like, aliens. And stuff. What were those called again?”

 

“Chitauri,” 

 

“Yeah. Those guys.” Bucky rubbed at her temple. “Y’know, you guys crushed my sisters car during that whole thing. She moved to a small town after that. Figured no aliens would attack outside major cities.”

 

The Captain stared at her for a minute. “Are you serious?”

 

“Yes. I’m having flashbacks to the whole ordeal as we speak.” She paused. “I mean, that was a little insensitive of me. You actually did stuff. If anyone should be having flashbacks it’s you.” She was suddenly very aware of herself. “Yeah, okay. So, uh, sorry for yelling at you.” She started to back away.

 

He noticed her moving away and said, “Wait.”

 

She froze. “Yeah?”

 

“I should be the one apologizing.”

 

“What,”

 

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I should’ve just asked you for help instead of… you know…” He reached up to touch the back of his next, and Bucky definitely did not stare at his bulging biceps. 

 

“Stalking me?”

 

“Yeah. I mean, no! I mean…” He grinned sheepishly at her and she thought she was going to melt. 

 

“Yeah, well.” She grinned back at him. “Don’t the Avengers have their own gym? Why did you even come here in the first place?”

 

He gave a little laugh. “It’s not so much of a gym as a training facility. All the others ever want to do is spar, and I got a little tired of-”

 

‘Getting your ass kicked?”

 

He laughed again. “Something like that.”

 

Bucky licked her bottom lip, hating herself for not being mad at this stupid man who beat her record and-

 

“You should come by sometime.”

 

“What?”

 

“To the Tower. You can, uh, check out the facility. Give Tony some ideas for improvements.” He winked. 

 

“Uhh. Yeah. I mean, I’m not a professional. And I don’t know much about training facilities. Or, anything about them, really, I-” She stopped herself. “Yeah I could come by.”

 

He smiled again. “Great! If you give me your number, I could text you the address.”

 

Bucky blinked. “The address?”

 

“Yeah. The address for the Avengers Tower?”

 

“You mean, the address for the giant building with the giant ‘A’ on it that everyone in the city, and probably the world, knows about?”

 

“Oh. Uh, yeah. That one.”

 

“Cap, I gotta say, that was a terrible pickup line.”

 

“Oh, no, that wasn’t a-”

 

“Give me your phone, I’ll give you my number anyways.” Bucky held out her hand, not believing what she was doing. 

The Captain beamed at her and handed her his phone.

 

“What’s your name, by the way?” He asked as she started typing in her number.

 

“Jamie Barnes.” She said. “But my friends call me Bucky.” She handed him his phone back.

 

“Bucky?” He made a bit of a face. “Why’s that?”

 

She laughed a little. “I just met you, Cap. I don’t think you’re at the level of friendship it takes to unlock that backstory yet.”

 

“What level do I have to get to?”

 

“Seven,” She said, unsure of why she chose that number.

 

He nodded. “You know, now that you’ve got my interest, I’m gonna have to find out?”

 

“I guess I’ll be seeing you again then, eh Cap?” She smiled.

 

“Definitely. And you can call me Steve, if you want.”

 

“Steve,” She said, testing it out.

 

He nodded with another smile and she only just noticed that he had perfect teeth too.

 

“Right. Well, I think I’ll be going now.” She said, backing away even more before she made some stupid comment about his mouth that she would definitely regret later.

 

“See you around, Bucky.”

 

“Bye,” She all but ran to the women’s change room. 

When she got there she sat down hard on a bench and tried to think of something that wasn’t  _ Captain freaking America who wants her to call him Steve sweet Jesus he’s hot. _

 

Once she’d regained control of her thoughts she reached into her pocket to grab her phone, and saw a text from an unknown number.

 

**Unknown: I hope I didn’t scare you away from the gym for good.**

 

Bucky grinned.

 

**Bucky: Not a chance Stevie**

 

She saved his number under the name ‘Captain FREAKING America’ and went to go shower. 

 

She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

 

“Of course,” She said to herself. “I meet Captain America with no makeup and tomato face.” 

 

She cursed her easily flushable skin and took a cold shower in hopes of getting rid of the redness.

 

She briefly considered starting to wear makeup when she worked out, but quickly dismissed the idea.

 

_ Not worth the breakouts _ .

____________________________________________________________________________

  
  


“I don’t get it.” Bucky said, pushing sweat-soaked hair out of her eyes.

 

“You don’t get what?”

 

“You,”

 

“What about me?”

 

“Literally everything.”

 

Steve grinned up at her from the plank position he was holding. 

 

Bucky had dropped down ten minutes ago.

 

“I’m an open book, Buck. If you’re so confused, ask a question.”

 

“Can I ask anything?”

 

“Within reason.”

 

“What counts as within reason?”

 

“Try me,”

 

Bucky smiled. “Why this gym?”

 

“Honestly? I opened to a random page in a phone book and this was the first one I saw.” 

 

“Jesus, Steve. A phone book? You are ancient.”

 

She watched as he laughed, which made his whole body shake.

 

“If I make you laugh hard enough, will you fall over?”

 

“I don’t think you’re funny enough.”

 

“Ouch. I’m offended.”

 

Two weeks after they met, Steve and Bucky had started working out together, but only at the gym. Bucky wouldn’t admit it but she was terrified to go to the Avengers Tower.

 

Steve shifted his weight so he was in a side plank position facing Bucky. “You know I would never purposely offend you, right?”

 

“Whatever, Stevie.” Bucky said, but smiled anyways. 

 

“Anything else?”

 

“Hmm. What does it take for you to actually get tired when working out?”

 

“Normally, aliens.” He joked. “Or an army.”

 

“Workouts, Stevie, not real life.”

 

“Well, that all depends on what I’m doing.”

 

“Okay, how much can you bench press?”

 

“I’m not totally sure, but Tony said I should be able to lift over a ton.”

 

“Oh my God, are you serious?”

 

“Yeah,”

 

“Jesus,” She thought for a minute. “If I hit you, will it hurt?”

 

“It won’t hurt me, no.”

 

“Will it hurt  _ me _ ?”

 

“Maybe,” He was grinning again.

 

“Honestly, I’d believe it.” She said. “You abs looks like they could grate rocks.”

 

Steve’s smile got bigger and Bucky’s face, already flushed from working out, got redder. 

 

“I’m gonna go jog.” She said and stood up quickly.

 

“But I’m not even halfway done!” Steve cried from the ground.

 

“Not even half-” Bucky looked at the timer on her phone. “Steve, it’s been fifteen minutes!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah I wrote this super fast and way earlier than I was planning, and there's nooo way I'll be able to update every day.
> 
> Anyways, I took a guess at Bucky's age. Most fics I've read put Bucky and Steve anywhere from 25- mid 30s.
> 
> Also, thank you so much for all the comments on the first chapter! Wow! You guys rock!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Throws chapter at you and runs* I know this is super overdue for an update and I'm not abandoning this at all I'm just very busy and unorganized and I'm sooooorryyyy!

Bucky had a problem.

 

She knew she’d had this problem for a while, but she hadn’t let herself believe it until now.

 

Bucky had a  _ teeny tiny little crush _ .

 

On Steve Rogers.

 

On Captain-freaking-America.

 

Really, who didn’t have at least some sort of crush on the man?

 

That body, that face… Even his damn personality was perfect. 

 

Bucky had caught herself staring more than a few times, and mentally slapped herself across the face to get herself out of the muscle-induced haze.

 

When she really  _ realized  _ it though, it’d been like walking into a brick wall.

 

Well, actually, she’d run directly into Steve, her face smushed into his rock-hard chest. Felt like a brick wall, though. She’d gave a very dignified “Oof,” as she was momentarily smothered by Steve’s pecs. 

 

“Sorry, Buck, I should’ve watched where I was going! You okay?” His hands were on her upper arms, pulling her away from his body so he could look down at her with concern all over his stupid pretty face.

 

Bucky had shook her head to try and clear it before looking up at the man in front of her. “Yeah, I’m alriiiiii-” Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened and she looked up at him. 

 

_ Holy fucking shit.  _

 

Steve was a little sweaty and red in the face from his run around the track, his brow furrowed in concern, his bottom lip sticking out a bit more than usual. Had his jaw always been that prominent? Have his eyes always been that blue?

 

“Bucky?” Her heart fluttered when he said her name again.

 

_ Shit.  _

 

“Uhhhhhh yep I’m all good. I am good. I am- going to go shower and, uh, yep. Bye.” She turned on her heel and, with as much grace as she could manage, fucking fled to the safety of the women's change room. 

 

Now, she was on the mezzanine track with Steve again, trying her best to keep up with him, despite his efforts to slow down for her. 

 

Her playlist was coming to an end and she slowed down, gesturing to the small area with a few mats for stretching and winding down. “Gonna be over there.” She gasped out, and Steve nodded before taking off at his real jogging speed. “Asshole,” she muttered under her breath. 

 

She sat down on one of the mats and started stretching out her legs. Her running playlist ended, and instead of taking out her headphones and stretching in silence like usual, she opted to hit ‘shuffle all’ and listen to whatever came on. 

 

She smirked as the first few notes played. “Of fucking course.” 

 

She sang under her breath as Bonnie Tyler serenaded her, noting how  _ fucking ironic it was for this song to come on right now. _

 

_ Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods? _

_ Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds? _

_ Isn’t there a white knight, upon a fiery steed? _

_ Late at night I toss and I turn, and I dream of what I need. _

_ I need a hero! _

 

Bucky had really picked a day to keep her music playing. Behind her back, along the wall that was made up of glass to offer a few of the New York streets below, something very strange and very alien flew past. And then something else. And then another, and another, and another. 

 

_ I’m holding on for a hero ‘til the end of the night _

_ He’s gotta be strong and he’s gotta be fast and he’s gotta be fresh from the fight _

_ I need a hero _

_ I’m holding on for a hero ‘til the morning light _

_ He’s gotta be sure and it’s gotta be soon and he’s gotta be larger than life _

 

Bucky stood up, stretching her arms over her head, still humming along to her song. 

 

“ _ Bucky!”  _

 

She turned at the sound of someone yelling her name, very loudly, before something hit the side of the gym and she was tossed backwards, head over ass, flailing and crying out as she landed in the stack of exercise balls, knocking it over.

 

“What in the fuck-?”

 

She looked up from her position on the floor to see a giant hole blasted into the side of the building, and-

 

“STEVEN ROGERS ARE THOSE ALIENS?!”

 

He apparently didn’t hear her, or, more likely, he was a little busy fighting off the  _ fucking aliens  _ that were now flooding into the gym.

 

Somehow, Bucky’s music was still playing in her ears and she gaped as Captain freaking America punched an alien in the face. (Was that it’s face? Aliens are weird.)

 

_ It’s gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet _

_ I need a hero _

_ I’m holding on for a hero ‘til the end of the night _

 

“You’re fucking joking…” This was not real life.

 

“Bucky!”

 

She blinked. “Uh?”

 

“Get me my shield!”

 

“UHH?!” She said a little louder, cause how was she supposed to get his shield?

 

“It’s in my locker! Number 54!”

 

“You bring you fucking shield to the gym with you?!”

 

“Just go get it!”

 

Bucky stumbled to her feet, ducking as some sort of debris came flying towards her head. She took off for the stairs, leaping down them to get to the men’s locker room. She figured no one would care if she went in there since there were  _ fucking aliens  _ attacking. 

 

She got to locker 54 before swearing and sprinting back up to Steve.

 

“WHAT’S YOUR LOCK COMBINATION?” She hollered over to the man, still punching alien’s in their faces (?). 

 

“It’s my birthday!”

 

“WHEN’S YOUR FUCKING BIRTHDAY?!” 

 

“July- damn it! July fourth, nineteen-eighteen!”

 

Bucky took off again, then froze. “YOUR BIRTHDAY IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?”

 

“NOT THE TIME, BUCKY!”

 

_ Right _ . She raced back down to the locker room and opened his locker, revealing the shield. “I’m  _ so  _ gonna geek out over this when it’s all over.”

 

She heard an exceptionally loud crash from above her and grabbed the shield, running back up the stairs. This was some good cardio.

 

_ Jesus, Bucky, really? Not. The. Time. _

 

“Steve!” She started to throw him his shield before remembering that she was awful at frisbee and- “Shit, too late.” The shield was out of her hands and flying through the air towards Captain freaking America. 

 

By some miracle, he caught it, and Bucky resisted the urge to cheer. 

 

She heard heavy footsteps behind her and an image of the Avengers showing up to her gym popped into her head. She turned and frowned. 

 

“Who the fuck are you guys?” 

 

She heard something that sounded like a gunshot but not a gunshot, and a stinging in her arm, and she looked down. “Is this a fucking tranquil-” Her vision went dark and she barely registered falling before she felt the ground beneath her shift and then her head was hitting something hard and then she was-

 

-waking up with a gasp and flailing her arms around widely, reading to kick whoever’s ass just shot her with a fucking tranquilizer. 

 

“Bucky! It’s me!” 

 

“Ow,” Her head hurt. 

 

“You hit your head pretty hard.”

 

“Uhhh,” Her vision was blurry.

 

“You fell, I guess.”

 

She squinted. “Steve?”

 

“Yeah, it’s me.”

 

“Oh, good. Thought you were those other assholes.”

 

He snorted. “You call aliens assholes, now?”

 

“No, not the aliens. The guys in black and masks and-”

 

“What are you talking about?” Steve’s face grew serious.

 

“Uh, well I was just  _ trying _ to tell you, you dick. There were guys in all black with masks over their faces and, uh, someone shot me in the arm with a tranquilizer. Which, like, what the fuck? People use those?”

 

“Was there anything on their uniforms?”

 

“Uh… I don’t remember.” Bucky started to sit up, and then pain shot through her neck. “Ow!” She grabbed at the side of her neck. 

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“Shit. Feels like a neck cramp. But,  _ ow _ , a really bad one.”

 

Steve helped her up to her feet, where she swayed slightly before regaining her balance. Her neck  _ really  _ hurt. 

 

“You alright now?”

 

“Yeah, I think so. Who were they? Actually, no. First, what the  _ fuck  _ were aliens doing here?”

 

Steve opened his mouth to answer, but then his eyes locked onto Bucky’s neck, and he froze. “Buck,”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“They tranquilized you in the arm?”

 

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

 

“Then why is there a mark on your neck?”

 

“There’s a _what_ _now_?” She marched over to a mirror still hanging on the wall of the gym to inspect her neck, which was now feeling very hot and _very_ painful.

 

She tilted her head to the side, and saw what looked like the mark a needle leaves after getting a booster shot. “Um. Okay. I am officially freaking out a little.” She felt herself start to shake. 

 

“I think you should come to the tower.”

 

Bucky turned to face Steve before searing pain ripped through her neck and down her body. She cried out and stumbled. Her whole body was shaking.

 

“Bucky? What’s wrong, I don’t-”

 

She couldn’t hear the rest of what he said. Her ears were ringing so loud she thought her eardrums would burst. She couldn’t breathe. Her body was on fire, she felt her hands shaking uncontrollably as she reached up to cover her ears even though it wouldn’t help, and then she felt something hard underneath her, like the floor, but she was standing, right? Why did-

 

Pain shot through her body again and she realized she was screaming right before everything went black.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with another chapter that I literally just threw down in Google Docs and hoped for the best. I think you've all figured out that my updates are gonna be pretty infrequent, but I'm definitely not giving up on this fic anytime soon. I've got a lot going on, but I'm determined to get this done. Eventually.
> 
> Also, thank you so much to all the amazing people leaving comments! I know I don't usually reply, but that's cause I get all awkward and flustered whenever people say nice things to me, not because I'm rude or anything. So if you've left a comment, know that I am eternally grateful and also embarrassed as hell.

Bucky woke up to the sound of machines beeping and people arguing. 

 

Oh, and pain. 

 

She groaned as her head pounded, and heard the arguing stop.

 

“Is she awake already?”

 

“She shouldn’t be, I gave her enough to keep her knocked out for at least three more hours.”

 

“Who fucking drugged me?” Bucky asked, eyes still closed, words slurred and choppy. Was she in a bed?

 

“Uh, that would be Banner, definitely not me.”

 

“Really, Tony?”

 

Banner? Tony? Aren’t those-?

 

_ Oh, shit.  _

 

Bucky’s eyes flew open and she looked over to see two men standing on the other side of the room. The… hospital room?

 

“You- you’re- you…”

 

“Take your time, sunshine.” Tony Stark (!!!!!) said. 

 

Her eyes narrowed. “Fuck off.”

 

“I thought you were friends with Cap? No way he puts up with that language.”

 

_ Steve _ . 

 

“Where is he?” She paused. “Where am  _ I _ ?”

 

“Avengers Tower. Medical floor. And, I’m not sure where your boyfriend is.”

 

“Not my boyfriend.”

 

“He’s usually here. Barely left your side since you got here, actually.”

“How long have I been here?”

 

“Steve brought you here yesterday afternoon.”

 

Bucky looked around the room until she saw a clock. 

 

“Is it 11am or pm?”

 

“Morning. We, uh…” Dr. Banner looked nervous. “We thought you’d be out until this afternoon, at least.”

 

She started to ask why they seemed so concerned with you waking up, but then the door opened and you saw  _ him _ .

 

“ _ Steve _ ,”

 

“ _ Bucky _ ,”

 

“Sorry, did you say he  _ wasn’t  _ your boyfriend?”

 

Bucky lifted her hand to give Stark the finger while she continued to stare at Steve.

 

Stark turned to Bruce with a grin. “I think I might like her.”

 

Steve hurried over to her. “Bucky.” He said her name again and her heart started somersaulting. “How do you feel?” He sat down in a chair next to her bed she hadn’t noticed before.

 

“Like shit.” She said with a weak grin. “What happened?”

 

Steve frowned. “Um. They might be able to explain it better than me-”

 

“Sorry Cap, this one’s on you.” Tony waved as he pulled his fellow scientist out the door with him.

 

Steve blinked. “Alright then.” He sighed. “Okay. So, from what we can tell, the aliens that attacked the gym weren’t, uh, technically aliens.”

 

She sat up a little. “What do you mean?”

 

He sighed again. “Okay. They were… they were cloned from the DNA of the aliens that attacked back in 2012.”

 

Bucky frowned. “What?”

 

“Yeah. There weren’t that many, and they were weaker than the originals. They were… different.”

 

Bucky’s mind was running at a million miles an hour. “Who- who would clone aliens that nearly destroyed everything? And why? And how? And-”

 

“HYDRA,”

 

“Who-ah?”

 

“HYDRA. They- they’re an organization. They started back when I was in the war, from Schmidt. I thought we wiped them out, but they’ve been underground the whole time. We’ve only just caught onto them again.”

 

“So… secret evil organization cloning aliens to attack the city again. Right.”

 

“That’s just it. They didn’t attack the city.”

 

“What?” She was saying that a lot. “But they-” She froze. “They only came after the gym?” 

 

Steve nodded.

 

“After you?”

 

“After  _ us _ .”

 

Bucky’s eyes widened. “Us? They- they know about me? Why- why? How?”

 

Steve dropped his gaze. He was quiet.

 

Bucky realized what he was thinking and shook her head. “Steve-”

 

“It’s my fault.”

 

“No, no it’s not.”

 

“It is. If I had been more careful, they wouldn’t have followed me, wouldn’t have followed you. Wouldn’t have figured it out. Wouldn’t have gone after someone I care about.”

 

Bucky felt her face flush. “They- why did they send the aliens if they were coming in themselves? That’s who I saw, right?”

 

Steve nodded, still not meeting her gaze. “Yeah. We think they used the aliens to keep me busy while they went after you.”

 

“But, they didn’t go after me. They knocked me out and left me.”

 

“They didn’t.”

 

“What?” She really needed to stop saying that.

 

“They didn’t just leave you. They-” Steve’s jaw clenched. “They injected you with something.”

 

“... What?” Her voice was quiet.

 

“We’re trying to figure out what it is. It’s what the mark on your neck was, what hurt you.”

 

“Oh,” She was quiet for a moment. “Am I… is it gonna kill me?”

 

Steve finally looked up at her, meeting her eyes with his. “We’re not gonna let it.”

 

Bucky swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. “Can- can I get up? I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.”

 

Steve nodded, standing up to offer her his hand.

 

Bucky pushed back the blankets on top of her, grateful to be wearing light coloured sweatpants and a t shirt instead of a hospital gown. 

 

Steve helped her up and she waved him off as she walked on her own to the washroom. “I can walk, Stevie, don’t worry.”

 

She closed the door behind her once she was in the bathroom and took a deep breath.

 

“Shit. This is bad.” She leaned over the sink, hands gripping the cool ceramic. “Fuck. My sisters gonna kill me.”

 

The thought of her sister made Bucky flinch, her grasp on the edge of the sink tightening.

 

She heard a  _ crack _ .

 

Bucky looked down at her hands. “What the fuck?”

 

The sink under her hands had cracks running through it that definitely hadn’t been there before. “Um,” She let go, and saw the hand-shaped indents she left in the sink. “Uh,” She stepped back, alarmed, and then because she was  _ so  _ graceful, she tripped over her own two feet and slipped on the tiled floor. 

 

She instinctively reached out to grab the sink, but instead her hand smashed through it like it was nothing. 

 

“UHHH,” She was starting to freak out. “STEVE?”

 

She heard his footsteps approaching and then the door was ripped open. “Bucky, what happened? Are you- oh.”

  
  
  
  


Several hours and a bit too much medical jargon later, Bucky was in the Avengers personal gym. The very place she’d been actively avoiding since meeting Steve.

 

She was in the same sweats and t shirt as before, though she rolled the bottom of the pants up past her calves. 

 

She fiddled with the hem of her t shirt nervously, glancing around the room, trying not to meet anyone’s eyes. She’d been briefly introduced to everyone before getting to the gym, but the way everyone was watching her made her nervous.

 

Stark and Banner were off to one side, talking animatedly, gesturing to Bucky occasionally. 

 

The Black Widow- or, Natasha Romanov, as she’d said, was sitting on a stack of yoga mats, legs crossed under her with an expression on her face that was unreadable. Beside her was Clint Barton, who was grinning at Bucky. He gave her a thumbs up, and she felt slightly calmer. 

 

Steve was somewhere behind her, with a man named Sam Wilson and twins who looked closer to Bucky’s age than anyone else. Wanda and Pietro, they’d said. 

 

Bucky took a breath and looked up at the punching bag in front of her. 

 

“Just hit it as hard as you can.” Stark had told her. 

 

_ As hard as I can?  _

 

Bucky took another breath, flexing her fingers. She brought her arm back. Was now a good time for her to tell everyone she’d never been taught how to properly throw a punch? Probably not?

 

Her fist connected with the bag and moved backwards a little. 

 

“That was way less dramatic than I thought it would be.” Sam said from behind her.

 

“Hit it harder, Bucky!” Clint called to her. “Get pissed.”

 

Bucky frowned. She  _ was  _ pissed. Some assholes had knocked her out, drugged her up, then she’d passed out  _ again  _ and been drugged up  _ again,  _ and now she was being forced to do experiments that involved her breaking things or hitting them. 

 

She swung her fist again. The bag moved a little more. 

 

She wanted it to move more.

 

She hit it again. And again. And again, and again, and then she was  _ really  _ pissed because this thing wasn’t moving and she’d broken a fucking sink earlier, a punching bag was nothing compared to that, so why won’t it  _ move _ ?

 

Bucky’s fist connected with the bag, and she heard a ripping noise as it tore away from it’s anchor and flew back across the room. 

 

The room was silent. 

 

“... Now  _ that  _ is what I’m talking about!” Bucky turned to see Stark grinning wildly. “Cap, it’s like your serum! Just, worse. No, not worse, just-”

 

Banner cut him off. “-Just, not the same. Not as safe, not as pure.” 

 

Bucky was tired of the science stuff. “Can I hit some more stuff?”

 

She thought Stark would jump with glee at her words, he looked so excited. “Of course! Let’s get this girl some more stuff to hit, shall we?” 

 

The day dragged into the night, and eventually Bucky was standing in front of Steve in the center of a boxing ring.

 

“I don’t want to hit  _ you _ .”

 

“Come on, Buck. I can take it.” He grinned at her.

 

“I fucked up that punching bag pretty good.”

 

“Language!” Stark called over. 

 

“Suck a dick, Stark. Steve, I don’t want to-”

 

“You won’t hurt me, Bucky. Even if you do, my serum heals me faster than normal, anyways.”

 

Bucky frowned, then leaned forward and gently tapped her knuckles on his chest.

 

“Doesn’t count.” 

 

“ _ Steve _ ,” 

 

“Come on, Buck. You probably wanted to hit me when we first met, right?”

 

Bucky bit her lip. “Don’t remind me.”

 

Steve gave her a shit-eating grin that was nearly enough to make her want to punch him in his stupid pretty teeth. Then, he opened his mouth. “Didn’t I beat all your records?”

 

“You  _ dick _ !” She swung at him, but he dodged her easily. “You  _ know  _ I don’t like to talk about that!” She swung again, harder this time, and Steve had to duck to avoid it. “Stop moving! I thought you wanted me to hit you!”

 

This time, she brought her leg up on pure instinct, bottom of her bare foot connecting with the middle of his chest, and then Steve was off the ground, in the air, and then landing back on the ground. Hard. On his ass. 

 

Bucky’s eyes widened. “Holy shit. Holy shit. Oh, wait, Steve! You alright?”

 

He groaned. “Fine,”

 

“Bucky! That was awesome!” 

 

She turned to see Natasha and Clint grinning at her, the latter giving her another thumbs up. 

 

She grinned. “Okay. That was a little fun. Who else can I hit?”

 

“I think that’s good for today, Buck-aroo.” Stark said, and Bucky made a face at him. “How about tomorrow we start you with some real training?”

 

She beamed. “For real?”

 

Steve was up on his feet again. “Tony, what are you talking about?”

 

“She’s enhanced, Cap. She’d be an asset to the team, once she’s trained up a bit.”

 

“No way.” Steve’s fists were clenched at his side. “Absolutely not.”

 

“Steve!” Bucky looked over at him. “You don’t get to make that call.”

 

He turned to face her. “Buck, have you even thought about this? What this would mean for you? You could get hurt. You could  _ die _ .”

 

She frowned. “Steve. Come with me.” She grabbed him by his  delicious bicep and dragged him out of the crowded gym and into the hallway. “This morning you said this serum could kill me. You think I didn’t think about that?” 

 

Steve’s mouth opened to reply, but she cut him off.

 

“Yesterday I could’ve been killed by aliens, or HYDRA people. You think I didn’t think about that? Steve, I think I’m royally screwed no matter what.” She threw her arms up. “I don’t train and they’re still gonna come after me. I  _ do  _ train, and maybe I can kick their asses when they come back. It’s not even a choice, Stevie, it’s obvious.” 

 

He looked like a puppy someone had thrown out in the rain for being bad. “Bucky,” His eyes were big and sad and so blue she wondered if the serum had affected them somehow. “I’d protect you from them.” His voice was quiet.

 

Her heart hurt. “I know you would, Stevie.”  _ Don’t think about big muscular Steve fighting bad guys to protect you now is  _ not  _ the time for that _ . 

 

“I don’t…” He licked his bottom lip and Bucky wanted to bite it- No, not the time. “I don’t want to risk losing you, Bucky.” 

 

His words made her heart do jumping jacks. “Steve-”

 

“No, Bucky. I don’t want you to do this.” His voice was stronger now, he looked a little angry. “It’s not safe for you, you have no idea what could happen to you-” He froze when a hand was held out in front of his face, gesturing for him to stop.

 

Now, Bucky was angry. 

 

“What on  _ earth  _ gives you the right to tell me what to do?” Her eyes were burning holes into him and he felt himself turn red. 

 

“Bucky-”

 

“No, no. You shut up now. You’ve said enough.  _ I  _ make my own decisions. Not you, not Stark,  _ me _ .” She was  _ so pissed _ . “Got it? You don’t get a say in what I do. Thanks for being worried about me, but you don’t need to. I can handle myself.” She turned on her heel and started to storm back to her room.

 

Steve started to protest, and she whirled back around. 

 

“Steve,  _ stop it _ ! You’re not my dad, you’re not my older brother, you’re not my boyfriend, so  _ stop telling me what to do _ .”

 

They were both quiet, Bucky seething and Steve frozen in place.

 

“What… if…” Steve was staring at the floor between them. 

 

“What?”

 

“What if I was?”

 

Bucky made a face. “What?”

 

“What if I was?”

 

“What if you were what, my dad? I mean, age-wise you could technically be my grandpa, but-”

 

“No, Buck.” He was suddenly right in front of her. “What if I was your boyfriend?”

 

_ Oh.  _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Does anyone mind that my chapters are a little short? I can make them longer, I just tend to feel like I'm rambling on when I do long chapters. Thoughts? Advice? Questions? Concerns? Bueller?)


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